It’s sort of like teaching the Institutional Church that we need to be more like slingshots than magnets. It’s sort of like teaching Church people to wear more aprons and fewer bibs.
Be the Shelter, not the Storm.
In every congregation and in every community there are people who relish in creating storms. And yet all of us find ourselves occasionally caught in scary, swirling storms and we need shelter that might literally save our lives. Everybody needs shelter from life’s storms. But most of the time, we can be the shelter in somebody else’s storm.
The Church is called to be that shelter one disciple at a time. This is not merely about offering shelter in our church buildings for the homeless or feeding the hungry during hurricanes.
It’s about being the person who helps another person save face in the grocery store who’s $5 short. It’s about being the one who sits with a grieving person whose life has just been obliterated. It’s about noticing the child who is invisible to others. It’s about inviting someone to join you at the table. It’s about inviting a lonely neighbor into your life.
This is Church. And this is what I’ve witnessed in the past several days while in the throes of a storm called Florence.
Image of Bob Dylan singing one of the greatest songs ever written.
A Church for Starving Artists 